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Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Toby,
his big brother Elliott, his mum and dad, Louise and Lee launched Harvey's gang at our prestigious new site – Great Ormond
Street Hospital (GOSH).

As
a member of Harvey’s Gang, Toby honoured us on Monday 10 July 2017 by launching
Harvey's Gang at GOSH

The whole team and visitors at Great Ormond Street; Well done everyone.

Our Harvey's Gang “Vision” is that we are embedded
into the healthcare pathway of children, it took a huge leap forward by
starting tours at GOSH. Proud

I am very honored and humbled by having
one of the UK’s specialist children’s hospitals take on Harvey’s Gang. GOSH
Biomedical Scientists, Amanda and Munnar have worked particularly hard with GOSH’s
Children and Young People's Participation Officer, Fiona to get these tours off
the ground, but needed complete buy in from the whole pathology team before
they could start.

It is fantastic for Biomedical
Scientists and Laboratory Support Staff that do not see patients. At Western
Sussex NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust hospitals, Harvey's Gang won the 2015 Kate
Granger Compassionate Care Team award and the Chief Scientific Officer’s 2016 Award
for Patient and Public Participation (we don't see patients!)

It empowers the staff and adds to job
satisfaction. You can just feel it when you look at the faces of the
youngsters.

Allowing and empowering young patients
to understand their illness, treatment by knowing about blood and the
processing of their samples, and answering some of the parents’ questions,
that doctors and nurses can’t answer quite so well.

Questions like:

Why do they need to be full to the line
on the clotting samples?

Sample labeling criteria, and positive
patient identification; Why?

Why do you need my samples so often?

Why do you need my samples before or/and
after my treatment?

We
have had one Consultant Paediatrician referral as a recommended treatment for a
patient that needs regular samples and is very needle phobic.

"The
tour was terrific and we no longer worry about needle phobia, and the young
person brings their own samples down to the laboratory afterwards/" Wow!.

Toby showing a resultant PT test; Jelly clot. Toby has a number of these tests done.

The tours bring the young patient into
the laboratory allowing us, mere humble, biomedical scientists and support
staff to meet our patients, hear their stories, understand their
illnesses, change our working practices and mostly ensure we do better and
ensure our patients come first.

Why?
WE all feel such a huge increase in our job satisfaction and reasons to work so
hard for them.

To
continue to help usplease donateand help us spread our vision. Thanks, and thank you Toby, Elliott, Amanda and Munnar; great day and thank you to the team from Western Sussex NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, Hayley, and Kerry, and Claire (Harvey's Mum) we had a terrific day, thank you for sharing with us Toby.